I really don’t care about his own doping any more. Whether it was more or bigger doping than anyone else's, which is probably the case compared to some and probably not the case compared to others, is perhaps worth wondering about, because this casts a shadow over results in those years. And his effing framed jerseys — he can have those too. He needs them. The sadness of that need is almost inarticulable.

What I do care about, still, is that he was a terrible coward at exactly the moment when he was in a position to do something wonderful for the sport. You get the feeling that what the sport had turned into all by itself, without his agency, remained that way, and was perpetuated, precisely because of him. He isn’t simply (or merely) complicit. He drove it; he gave it momentum and enforced its immoral policy. Time and time again he was the figure who made it known to the peloton that no other way would be possible. People like Bassons and Simeoni, Obree, Gilles Delion, and a handful of other outspoken — and rather brave — guys were a potential voice of change. And you can make an argument, a real, rational argument, that Armstrong was more personally instrumental than any other single individual in stopping that “voice” from being heard and from drawing to it the numbers, the tipping point, that could have effected big changes much, much sooner.

As soon as Armstrong says — out loud and without all kinds of legal tiptoeing that’s about hanging on to his assets — “I was the one who was uniquely in a position to save this sport and did not do that, because I was more interested in being a selfish greedy celebrity,” then fine, step right up and be part of the dialogue.

ElleSeven....once again, extremely well written. But I seriously doubt that he ever had that moment of revelation that he realized he could hugely redeemed himself by doing what you said...stepping forward and leveraging his standing to lead the change to a cleaner sport. Probably few people in sports do....

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistant one. -Albert Einstein